Cultivating Constructive Communication

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, communication is still the hot topic in the world of governance, risk and compliance.

A piece published at silicon.com this week focuses on conversations between the IT chief and the legal department. Effective compliance and risk management require input from both CIOs and corporate counsel, it's true. But, as speakers at the Gartner IT Security Summit pointed out recently, volumes of input from each side won't mean anything if they're not understood.

In other words, CIOs must move beyond "IT speak," and the attorneys have to avoid "legalese."

According to United Utilities group information security officer Neil Dudleston, clarity is the key:

If you express risk in the different languages make sure things are transparent and everyone does understand who is responsible for what.